Minor League Schedule: Doubleheaders For Altoona and West Virginia Today

There are ten games on the schedule today with some pretty good pitchers on the mound. West Virginia has a doubleheader tonight, with the first game being the make up of a July 19th rain out. Altoona was rained out yesterday. The game will be made up today as part of a doubleheader. The DSL regular season ends today. Check out the Recent Transactions section to the bottom of this page, for all Pirates minor league transactions. A full recap of yesterday’s action can be found here. The latest Dominican Summer League recap can be found here.

Andy Oliver will make his 22nd start of the season tonight. He has started just once in the last five weeks after being moved to the bullpen. Oliver started on Sunday, giving up one run on five hits and a walk in five innings. He has thrown a total of 112.1 innings this year, allowing 89 hits, five homers and a league leading 104 walks. Oliver has 123 strikeouts, a 1.26 GO/AO ratio and a .219 BAA.

Casey Sadler will get his 23rd start of the season tonight. He has thrown 124 innings, allowing 110 hits, 11 homers and 38 walks. He has 65 strikeouts, a 1.74 GO/AO ratio and a .242 BAA. Sadler went seven innings in his last start, allowing three runs(two earned) on four hits and two walks. He got roughed up in his previous outing, giving up five runs on eight hits and a walk in four innings. Nick Kingham will get the other start tonight. He has made ten starts and two relief appearances for Altoona. Kingham started the season with Bradenton, where he went 6-3, 3.09 in 13 starts. At the time of his promotion, he was leading the league with 79 strikeouts. In his last start, Kingham gave up two runs on eight hits and a walk in five innings, picking up seven strikeouts.

Adrian Sampson will get his 23rd start tonight. He has also pitched once in relief. On the season, he has pitched 123.2 innings, allowing 162 hits, 17 homers and 21 walks. He has 78 strikeouts, a 1.11 GO/AO ratio and a .320 BAA. In his last start, Sampson gave up four runs on eight hits and three walks in 6.1 innings. He walked two batters in his previous outing, giving him five free passes in two games after allowing 16 total walks in his first 21 games.

Clay Holmes and Kyle Haynes will get the starts today for West Virginia in their doubleheader. Holmes has thrown 114.1 innings this season, allowing 101 hits, seven homers and 65 walks. He has 84 strikeouts, a 1.86 GO/AO ratio and a .239 BAA. In his last start, he allowed three earned runs on four hits and two walks over five innings. Since the All-Star break, he is 3-1, 3.15 in 54.1 innings. Kyle Haynes will make his seventh start. He has also pitched 33 times in relief. As a starter, he is 0-2, 1.53 in 29.1 innings, with 33 strikeouts. On the season, he has 79 strikeouts in 72.1 innings. In his last start, Haynes gave up one earned run over seven inning, allowing three hits, one walk and he had seven strikeouts.

Cody Dickson will make his 12th start of the season tonight for Jamestown. He has pitched 42 innings, allowing 31 hits, two homers and 17 walks. Dickson has 43 strikeouts, an 0.92 GO/AO ratio and a .208 BAA. In his last start, he went 3.2 innings, allowing five runs on four hits and two walks. Prior to that, he had five straight appearances(24 IP) in which he didn’t allow a single earned run.

Blake Taylor will make his eighth appearance today. He last outing was a relief appearance that followed a rehab start by James McDonald. Taylor has thrown 17 innings, giving up seven hits and nine walks, while striking out nine batters. In his last game, he threw three shutout innings. He has pitched a high of three innings on four separate occasions. In his brief time, he has a .127 BAA and a 2.33 GO/AO ratio.

John was born in Kearny, NJ, hometown of the 2B for the Pirates 1909 World Championship team, Dots Miller. In fact they have some of the same relatives in common, so it was only natural for him to become a lifelong Pirates fan. Before joining Pirates Prospects in July 2010, John had written numerous articles on the history of baseball while also releasing his own book and co-authoring another on the history of the game. He writes a weekly article on Pirates history for the site, has already interviewed many of the current minor leaguers with many more on the way and follows the foreign minor league teams very closely for the site. John also provides in person game reports of the West Virginia Power and Altoona Curve.